Michael Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park, Sphere, Congo, Disclosure, Rising Sun, Adromeda Strain, etc., died yesterday from Cancer. I got into this guy way back when I was a little kid, and I still love his books. I know some of you also read his stuff, right? Supposedly he was writing a new book about ‘the leadership gene’, but I don’t know if that’s gonna be published now or not. I sure hope it is.
Jurassic Park? Congo?
Yeah I’m not losing sleep over this.
His books were really immersive and exhaustively researched. He was quite a talent, and it’s sad to see him cut down before his time.
I’m not losing sleep over a technophobe* conservative either.
*: Yes, I know not a true technophobe, but all of his books deal with technology possibly end up destroying us all.
Hades, have you read the books? They were good movies, but the books were excellent. He also wrote a number of other equally excellent books - Time Line, Disclosure and Airframe come to mind. This is quite a loss I think.
No I have not, but the chances of them comparing to something like Shogun is so small that I’m just gonna pretend I’m too good for them >_>
I liked some of his books when I read them at a very young age. I don’t know about his politics, but I don’t judge writers based on their politics.
The chances of anything being like Shogun is pretty small, Hades. You should give the ones you haven’t seen movies of (except Timeline, if you saw that then you should definitely read the book, that movie was awful and butchered the book) a read, especially the ones I mentioned - that is if you like that sort of thing. Airframe is about a company that was putting out faulty airplane parts and the resulting cover up after a plane crashes as a result. Disclosure is about a man who is sexually harassed and blackmailed by his female boss, and Timeline is about a company thats discovered ways to time travel and how they lose somebody and have to recruit experts on the time period in which they lost the person - that one is by far the most awesome of the ones I mentioned, but Sphere is also a great one as well, a little outside his comfort range and a little slow at times (but hey, you like Shogun) but great non-the-less.
Holy shit. I have to read this book. That sounds like one of the best plots in the history of literature.
And yeah, that sucks that Crichton died. The only book I read was The Lost World, which was alright. I completely forgot what happened in it now, because I read it when I was recovering on T3s from a wisdom teeth operation. Sounds like I have to put Timeline on my list now.
Let me clarify: I liked to read his books, but nothing more than mindless action reads. I think his positions were dumb and his overall world view didn’t mesh at all with mine.
And yes, Timeline the book rocked SO much harder than the movie.
Timeline was awesome. Nail-biting at times, too.
One thing you have to agree about Crichton - he researched his books. How many thriller authors have five-page bibliographies?
Some of his theories were some of the most interesting stuff I read. I realize now that many of them were simply abbreviated versions of other peoples’ more complex writings, but still. For instance, the stuff in the Lost World about ‘The Edge of Chaos’, or how the Internet is homogenizing world culture. Or in Jurassic Park about how your progression through a single day could show the same way you progress through your entire life, or how humans can’t destroy the planet, or the reason why people use scientific discoveries irresonsipbly.
A lot of my like of Crichton is just simple nostalgia. As an 8-12 year old kid, this guy’s theories seemed dark and forbidden to me, stuff other adults were too afraid to acknowledge. So I’m definitely mourning his passing - especially because of his aforementioned unpublished novel, which was supposed to be about how humanity has made so many mistakes over the span of history because the people who are given power have a “self-confidence gene” that doesn’t correlate into being wise or having good judgement. A simple idea, but Crichton’s greatness was that he could take really simple, common-sense ideas and extrapolate on why they had huge implications.
I should go read Timeline. Soon.
Sucks that he died though. I’ve seen most of the movies, not so much the books (and they’re usually better, right?). A few of my friends were into stuff that he wrote, and they enjoyed it. But his books are generally good, so it’s sad to see him go.
Anyways, there goes Jurassic Park 4…
He wasn’t associated with Jurassic Park 3, and barely was associated with 2(as anyone who compares the book to the movie knows), so I’m sure they’ll be a 4 anyway.
Hmm…never knew that. Was joking around, but interesting to know he wasn’t associated with them. Makes sense, because they suck bad.
Yeah two was nothing like the book. In fact I found the third movie to be closer to the second book, although obviously not the same.
I liked a few of his books, but he was a crank when it came to science in reality.
I agree, The Lost World book was awesome and had a lot more in the perspective of the female scientist.
Timeline is awesome because the people they recruit to go back in time are doing archaeological surveys on the exact region that the guy is lost in, so they get to discover if what they thought was going on was really going on, some of them are right and others aren’t. It’s an awesome insight into the characters that in the midst of a conflict one might think “hmm… I thought that bridge was over there”. Really a great book.
Sphere was cool too, I forget what the ending was but these people are investigating alien technology underwater and something takes control of the station computer and gives it intelligence (or something). One of his farther-out-there books to be sure. I never read Congo though, and I have Andromeda Strain but I don’t think I’ve ever read it.
He was a good writer, so its unfortunate to see him go. I’m not a big fan of his as a person though. I would’ve liked to engage him in a debate about these things because as Cid said, the man did his research for his books, so I would’ve wanted to hear about his thought process out of books.
I wasn’t really aware, nor am I now, but he was apparently a scientist by trade. What field though I don’t know, his books covered a variety of topics.